This race challenge always starts the night before - does she have the willpower to stay sober during the Cedar Street block party - this year she does! Beautiful morning, nice drive to Bangor - I live on the coast about 50 minutes away. I had a great warm up and started the race on pace around 9:30m/m (I'm a turtle) Alas, all of the good signs did not last very long. My left calf started to cramp up right before the mile 2 marker - before the gigantic hill of the race - I had to intersperse walking with running for awhile and walked most of the steep hill. I couldn't keep up with the group that I started with (they finished about a minute ahead of me) What ever was blocking my calf eventually dissapated and I could pick up the pace again. I chatted with a nice guy - part of a police officer team who was running - but then I dropped him on the downhill. The splits look like this: 9:40 10:33 - starting to cramp 12:16 -cramp and hill- ugh 9:39 - amazing mile for me includes chatting and walking through water stop 9:26 2008 51:40 (I was looking for something like 48-49) 2007 49:21 (apparently a hangover is helpful when racing?) BUT, I am very proud of myself for recovering and finishing strong - hopefully it will translate into a sub 30:00 5K at the end of the month. I still like the challenge of this race and the regulars (lots of older gentlemen from the sub5 track club are really nice and encouraging) My only negative comment is that they removed the first water stop - around mile 1.5 - perhaps drinking then and walking for a minute could have eliminated the cramp. Time to nap! A (Also posted in the LLR Forum)

Thanks Simon, I did learn some lessons - mainly I need more racing experience. Also I may reconsider that local 5K as it is the week before my goal HM. A